Rep. Steve King (R-IA) said on Wednesday that he drank “pretty good” water from a toilet during a congressional tour of several migrant detention facilities.
King brought up the experience during a town hall in Eagle Grove, Iowa while trying to debunk reports of immigration officials forcing migrants to live under dangerously unsanitary conditions at the facilities, such as making them drink out of the toilets.
“I actually went into that cell where it was reported that they were advised they had to drink out of the toilet,” King said. “I took a drink out of there and it’s actually pretty good.”
The Iowa Republican claimed there was a video of him doing so but that he doesn’t plan on posting it.
“I have a video tape and I smacked my lips but I didn’t send it out because I thought this subject just needs to go in the rearview mirror,” he said.
The toilets in the detention centers function as a prison-style hybrid between toilet and sink. After touring the migrant facilities in July, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) said that she and several other Democratic members of Congress saw a cell containing a toilet with a broken sink. According to Ocasio-Cortez, border patrol agents had told the migrant women in that cell to drink out of the toilet.
Meanwhile, King is currently being shunned by his own party leaders after his comments about white supremacy and rape/incest.
